people coming in thru the roof literally winterland was falling apart. one of my all time fondest memories. pancakes at six in the morning. jerry looking and feeling good chartbuster? --staggerlee jerry was into it. wharf rat j.g. kept hitting these notes that came flying out of his guitar straight at me .scarlet --fire-- all good loving every minute of it

My first NYE show, and one of my most life-changing nights ever. Caught the red eye after the Pauley show on the 30th. Crashed in a friend's van outside Winterland and woke up to find speakers on the corner playing great music, Uncle Bobo serving lentil soup, carrot cake, all sorts of good stuff. Finally the doors opened and we were treated to Animal House at 6, followed by the New Riders, Blues Brothes, Flying Karamozov Brothers and the Grateful Dead from midnight until dawn. Oh, and lots of little visine bottles being passed around - liquid refreshments free for the asking.

My folks still wonder why NYE is such an important night for me. 12/31/78 is why. If 3/18/77 (my first show) got me on the bus, 12/31/78 sealed the deal for life.

I've had the Winterland dvd for about 4 yrs or so and really dig it ( so do my kids). I've never had the opportunity to talk to anyone who was actually AT the show. I know this sounds really sappy, but it almost brings a tear to my eye.
Thank you all

My cousin and his wife lived in San Mateo. I lived in Orange County having moved out west post Syracuse University graduation. The only way to get tickets to this show was to enter a lottery held at various Bay area record shops. I called my cousin and asked him if he was into the Dead and he wasn't (my good fortune). I begged him to enter the lottery for me. He agreed, I sent him the money and he and his wife entered this lottery. The story is over 1 million people tried for just 3500 tickets. My cousin's wife won and I got to go! To this day, this is by far the best concert I have ever attended. After Pauley, we drove all night to my cousin's place. We crashed on the floor till about noon. The night started round 6 with a screening of Animal House. I was there up front. Then the New Riders played for about an hour. The Blues Brothers came out and tore the roof off the place. Belushi doing his flips, it was awesome. Then the Flying Karamozov Brothers juggling. It was endless. Winterland was dressed up like a Grateful Dead Museum. I remembered thinking to myself...Dead Heaven. There were Dead stickers on the floors, the ceiling, everywhere. The walls were covered with historic posters of all the great shows of the past and the posters were varnished on. Every where you looked, it felt historic. Just before midnight this big curtained off area in the balcony in the back of Winterland came alive and Uncle Bobo was sitting a huge smoking joint dressed as Father Time. It started coming down over the crowd and Father Time was tossing roses and spraying a little champagne over the crowd. I had to duck as he flew right over my head on to the stage. It's midnight, thousands of balloons come down and are pushed to the front and the Grateful Dead are now there playing Sugar Magnolia. Man, I will die a Dead Head. They played until 6:30 in the morning ending with an acapella We Bid You Goodnight. To top it off, Bill Graham served me breakfast and I had the privilige of standing next to him and talking to him for about 10/12 minutes while he was dishing out eggs and pancakes. He told me they were trying to recreate the old days. He said he wanted to go back one more time and he said if I ever wanted to know what it was like back in the day, just think of tonight.

Wow: Won the lottery with ticket number 700707, in Livermore Ca. in small hidden store I remembered about, after losing at Tower Records in Walnut Creek. That store did not open until late on Sunday 11 o'clock, a second chance.

But wait, will I lose again, three days before the concert, I get the dreaded 1978-79' flu. My girl friend runs and get my parents after taking my temp she said it went 102 to 106 in two hours. My parents carried me into tub filled with ice thru me in and filled it up full of water. Now they told me 'that what doctor said', within a hour my fever broke, spent next two days in playing in bed, whoa they let me go.. again.

They new by this time there was no stopping a true Deadhead.

By that morning, about 3:00 AM a new year, the band was winding down for a small jam break, my girlfriend disappeared with her old flame into the masses. Was she really there at all, heard she got married to some other guy later downtown. But as the lights came up, there she was, the other one, my Hawaiian Doll, my old love from school, disconnected by a move, sitting just two rows ahead and next to a guy, that looked just like me. As we look at each others face, he pulled her away and I could see her arm waving one last goodbye never to be seen. Ohhhhh... Winterland.... what you did to me......

We stood and screamed at the "end" long after all the equipment was gone from the stage. Bill came out and said something like "Sometimes the band wears out the crowd and sometimes the crowd wears out the band". I looked at some guy across the floor and we both think "If we just sit down there would be nothing they could do". So he and I and about a hundred other people, who had all obviously thought the same thing, sat down. With in five seconds everyone in the place was sitting!! Largest group-mind thought I was ever part of! So two mics were set up on stage and the band came back for an acapella version of And We Bid You Goodnight.

Got in on a pass, so Tex and I were able to save a front row in the balcony, left side. Guarded a garbage can full of Heinekins with Walton during some of the prelims. Remember one poster hung from center balcony 1407 days since last SF Dark Star. Dropped before Blues Brothers, a mighty time. BG served me srambled eggs that kept changing colors around 6 am.

WOW for sure! was this the gig the guy came through the ceiling & Uncle Bo-Bo talked him down? I had totally forgotten about the lottery, but then we were working @ Winterland (yes, lucky me) so maybe I wasn't really aware of it. Since we worked the catering, we fed the bands & don't remember if we cooked for the people that night.......I'll have to find the other cooks-maybe their minds are clearer on it-30 years-& those visine bottles.....haha Gypsy Cowgirl

I waited in line for a day and a half for this show. My wife (now ex) and I met up about five hours before doors opened. I took 12 rolls of photos & kept 'em frozen for 6 years before I developed them. What shots they are! I still have all of them.
Next morning Bettike the catering lady came up and made sure I had breakfast. Bill Graham and I spent time just talking and he wasn't mean or too busy for us. He made sure that the folks in line had food and water. He was cool. Animal House before the concert was cool. The dance troupe was out there. The Blues Brothers - Wow! New Riders - Freakin' Wow! Uncle Bobo in a big joint throwin' little joints - who'da thunk? The Dead till Dawn - Damn Near The Best Show Ever! In a box in storage in a plastic baseball cube is a piece of concrete from the Phil Zone side of the stage. No way to replace this place. No way to replace this band. When they go, no one else will do what they do the way they do it. Thanks Jerry, Bob, Phil, Mickey, Billy, Keith, Donna, Pigpen, Brent, Bruce, & Vince.

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